Related Series: Heaven's Lost Property Forte, Heaven's Lost Property the Movie: The Angeloid of Clockwork

Also Recommended: Chobits

Notes: Based on the manga by Suu Minazuki, currently running in Kadokawa Shoten's shonen magazine Shonen Ace.

The YouTube link provided at the end of the review works for residence in the United States and Canada. Unfortunately, it might not work for some of our international readers. Sorry.

Rating:

Heaven's Lost Property

Synopsis

Peace-loving Tomoko Sakurai's life is turned upside down when a beautiful angel falls from the sky and ends up living with him.

Review

I've never been that big on watching series advertised/sold as guilty pleasures. Most of the time when I watch something, I watch it because I'm interested in it, or expect it to be so bad it's good.

Heaven's Lost Property does not start off like that. In fact, the first two episodes of the series are among the most inane episodes of an anime I've seen in a while. However, after that I entered some sort of weird phase between hating the series and enjoying it way more than I ever should have. To the realm that some people call "guilty pleasure".

I think what really helps in this case is Tomoki Sakurai, who no doubts sees Ataru Moroboshi as an idol. Sure he's a shamless pervert and not too bright, but you know what? He at least has the guts to act on his actions and do what he wishes without thinking of the consequences, as opposed to cowardly wimps like Takumi from fellow AIC series Mayoi Neko Overrun!. I also found it ironic his proclamation of wanting to live a quiet, peaceful life, something usually regulated to girls in most shonen series. I also like how, despite their arguments and her slapping him for being a pervert, Tomoki actually gets along with his childhood friend/next-door neighbor Sohara Mitsuki, who's actually quite a likable character.

Oh yeah...we almost forgot about the Angelroids. Angel-looking beings with dog collars a la DearS, they're basically subservient to their masters and do what they wish. Introduced in the pilot episode is Ikaros, a tall, busty redhead with a near-permanent Frowny Face. Found by Tomoki, she basically does whatever he wishes without question, though he doesn't really want that, which he drives further as the series goes on. I guess even perverts have their limits, I suppose. Later we meet Nymph, a smaller, flat Angelroid who's short-tempeted and looks down on humans, but eventually grows to like being with Tomoki and friends.

At Tomoki's school we also have Eishirou Sugata, the resident smart one who wants to fly (and who has an obsession with anime figurines for some reason, using them as test pilots on things like birds. Thankfully this joke is dropped early on.)

So right now you're probably thinking I'm not glancing at this series in the same light as Stig did with DearS. After all, both shows feature teenage boys with hot aliens from outer space. You might even think I'm going to give this show maybe only a couple of stars tops.

And you would be wrong. Unlike DearS, Heaven's Lost Property is actually funny, has decent fanservice, amusing characters, and doesn't revolve entirely around subservient alien girls. It also has some of the weirdest plots I've seen in an anime in a while. One episode, where Sohara keeps losing her panties, results in an ending sequence notorious on the Internet now. As revenge, in a later episode Sohara causes any panties Tomoki sees to explode has him amusingly going blind-folded around his own house in an attempt to escape.

Still, this show does indeed have problems. While the series is well-animated and drawn, the fan-service sometimes feels more than a little tacked on at times, making the deathly serious final episodes really awkward when the time comes. Also, Mikako Satsukitane is a terrible character. She's basically a two-faced bitch who delights in other's misery, not unlike Maria from Arakawa Under The Bridge. Whenever I saw her cast that perverted grin on her face and chuckle, I knew the series was going to have some mean-spirited, unfunny joke coming out of her mouth, and most of the time I was right. See that image of her on the DVD cover above? Get used to seeing that face on her a lot.

Mikako and overly done fanservice pandering aside, I enjoyed Heaven's Lost Property. I wouldn't call it good or even decent, but it's a nice guilty pleasure and much smarter than I gave its first two episode credit for. If you plan to check it out, get to episode 3 or 4 before dismissing it - you might be surprised. Check it out here if you're interested.

Dangles between the line of guilty pleasure and stupid, but manages to be an entertaining series all the same. The not so forgiving can rid of one or even two stars. — Tim Jones

Recommended Audience: Plenty of fan service from the (mostly) large female cast - even Tomoki gets transgendered to join in! The last couple of episodes also feature a fairly violent scene with Nymph. Older teens and up.